17in MacBook boasts bloody big battery
12,820mAh, anyone?
Apple's 17in MacBook Pro comes installed with a humungous 12,820mAh battery, a disassembly of the newly shipping system reveals.
Mind you, since the thing weighs a hefty 6.6lbs/3kg, how often users will be relying on battery power remains to be seen. We suspect this boy is going to spend most of its life on desktops, plugged into the mains.
'Willya look at the size of that thing.'
But we digress - back to the take-apart, conducted by iFixit, which removed the ten tiny screws holding on the MacBook's baseplate to reveal the monster power pack that runs almost the full length of the laptop's 39.3cm front - the remainder is the length of the system's 2.5in HDD.
The battery weighs 1.25lbs/570g - 20 per cent of the laptop's weight. Apple claims it delivers up to eight hours' runtime.
Interior design
According to IFixit, the laptop's User Guide grants owners permission to remove the backplate, undoubtedly to allow them to access the machine's two, bunkbed-configuration memory slots. But the battery sports a sticker warning punters against pulling out the power pack. The sticker's attached to both battery and optical drive so it'll tear if anyone tries the maneouvre.
You have been warned
IFixit's full take-apart can be found here. ®
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COMMENTS
@ David Halko
Please note, neither of us stated or hinted that more voltage is needed. What we were saying is that the current capacity alone doesn't reflect the energy carrying capacity of the battery.
PS: I take it you don't know what a switching supply is? There is no wasted voltage (or power). For example: a switching supply can take 14V, output 2.8V at 10 amps, while only draw 2 amps (imagine a DC transformer). That's why batteries of higher voltages can be used.
Reduce That Voltagage More!!! @Steve & @Coward
If the system does not normally need more than 7.2 volts, then why is more voltage needed?
I have not seen a whole lot of CPU's and peripherals require 12 volts. Laptop hard drives will often run with only 5v now.
This being said, a properly designed system that does not require more volts does not need a battery that supplies more voltage - if the vendor built in a 12 volt battery, it is a waste, since 3.8 volts would just be used to generate heat through step-down circuitry!
Some time in the future, I would hope to see batteries using 3.6 volts with 24 Amps... to get some real life expectancy and further reduce heat production!
Reduce That Voltagage More!!! @Steve & @Coward
Correction: 4.8 volts would be wasted
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